Supreme Court will hear case of football coach fired for praying on the field

by Seth Udinski

Seth Udinski, FISM News

 

On Friday, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will hear arguments in an important case involving the protection of religious freedom in public schools.

Joe Kennedy was a high school football coach in the Bremerton School District in Washington state for eight years. Kennedy is a Christian, and in 2015 he knelt down on the field after a game to pray. Though his act was supported by many players and coaches, the school district fired Coach Kennedy.

The coach has appealed the case in lower courts, arguing that the school district infringed on his First Amendment right to religious freedom. He has brought his case all the way to Washington, D.C., and he will now have the chance to have his case heard by the highest court in the land.

Coach Kennedy shared the joy of pouring into the lives of young men, and the heartbreak of getting that joy taken away simply because of his religious beliefs:

I think about how many kids lives I was touched by during eight years when I coached. How many young men have I not been able to help? You feel almost lost because as much as I help them or coach them, I got the joy out of it. I felt like I was really making a difference in people’s lives. That joy is just awesome, there’s no way to explain it…It’s so hard because you love these kids and you love the families. This is part of life that is most real and you end of losing all of that over something like this. You still try to make sense of it … it doesn’t make any sense.

FISM News will continue to follow this crucial case is it unfolds in the Supreme Court.

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